With an hour or so to spend in the shop, I was able to make a couple of guide brackets for the rear brake line that attach to the torque link. The rubber grommets are actually designed to fit 3/4″ diameter truck marker lights, but I had some in my parts cache and they turned out to be ideal — just the right size for the banjo fitting to pass through. The way I have them installed on the torque link doesn’t make logical sense, but it was a quick and dirty install to see how they’d work. I’m happy with the result.

I still need a couple more brackets further forward, where the brake line passes under the engine. However, a couple of simple P-clips might be all that’s needed there.

Once those were done, I started on a replacement for the plastic carb insulator I broke. I got as far as laying out the shape on 3/16″ alloy.

At this point, I had one of those “well, duh!” moments. Why did I need any spacer at all? I could just bolt the carb directly to the intake runner. Why have an o-ring and a gasket, when one mating surface would do?

Why, indeed. I got a couple of slightly shorter bolts and cinched the carb in place. There’s no clearance problems with the throttle cable, and as you can see in the photo, the choke knob is pulled up without hitting the tank. There’s enough leeway in the bolt holes that I bolted the carb on slightly low on the intake tube, in order to provide that extra bit clearance. It looks sloppy, but I doubt that will cause any functional problems. The engine started on the third pull and settled into a very even idle, so I am calling that satisfactory.

Leave a Reply

Related Post